The present invention relates to barriers and, in particular, it concerns barriers that are easily and quickly erected and offer high security features.
Of most relevance to the present invention is a barrier described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,708 to Cochraine, wherein the barrier is extensibly deployed from a vehicle, and which includes at least three coils of barbed tape supported and spaced from one another with an upper coil located above two lower coils. The coils are spaced apart parallel to one another, and are supported by transverse rods located along the respective lengths of the coils.
A shortcoming of the aforementioned system is due to the barrier structure being connected and supported using transverse rods. This makes the structure relatively expensive and time consuming to produce. The weight of the rods also adds additional compressional stress to the structure that may limit the height of the structure. In addition, the rods may limit transportability due to their weight as well as reducing compressibility of the coils due to their bulk.
A further shortcoming of the aforementioned system is that the barrier is essentially supported along the axis of the coils by the tension of the coils themselves. This can lead to a weakening of the entire structure.
Another shortcoming of the aforementioned system is that the barrier is not anchored to the ground. Although this means that the barrier can be removed quickly by the installers, it also means that security is compromised when the barrier is in use.
A further shortcoming of the aforementioned system is the non-inclusion of additional security detection features.
There is therefore a need for a barrier, which is easy and cheap to construct easy to deploy, robust and provides high security features such as anchoring and security detection.